How long can you live a mobile game?

In recent years, mobile games have swept the world, but compared with traditional host games and PC games, the life cycle is often relatively short. Even the "Candy Crush Saga", which has excelled in the past year, is not spared. So, what causes these mobile games not to endure? Today, Xsolla will discuss the causes of the rise and fall of mobile games.

Maybe game development is like the movie "Python and the Holy Grail" that says:

"Everyone said I was stupid to build castles in the swamp, but I insisted on doing that and I had to prove it to them." The first castle sank into the swamp, so I built the second, and the second sank into the swamp, and I built the third. It also collapsed. But the fourth castle survived, and now stands still! ”

After countless failures, there is always a way to survive, but how far can be, not only the game design itself, but also with the platform timing, technical constraints, cultural adaptability and many other factors closely related.

For a game company that has made a lot of progress, there will be many other problems, if the good works continue, expansion and so on.

Let's take a look at some of the big questions that Xsolla has to organize for you!

the basic principles of brand building

Brand is the real driving force to drive the game, in order to ensure that the signboard game continues to glow, the EA or the big publishers such as the motion view is willing to spend a lot of time and effort, because they know, the brand can bring value. The game itself, which sells more than 10 million sets, is rarely seen, and through several iterations, maturing brands and intellectual property (IP) can keep these game companies successful.

"EVE Online", "World of Warcraft" and "League of Legends" are frequently updated, and popularity continues. True, the vast majority of MMO or MOBA games are hard to fail – like building castles in swamps, but once they survive, they have the ability to create large fortunes for their owners for years.

So whether your company is small or large, the long-term future of your company will always come from the brand. You have to be able to create 10 games around an IP and focus on how much the player is receptive to them. But to do this, game manufacturers need to build strong connections with their users, or their games will likely become a weak, single-generation product.

a difficult process

"Candy Crush Saga" changed King's fate, and spawned a large number of other "legendary" games in the company's Halo. On the eve of the IPO, King's IPO was priced at $22.50, seemingly unstoppable.

But King was unfortunate enough to follow Zynga's footsteps. In the latest fiscal quarter, King failed to meet revenue expectations, and the outside world began to question whether the company could continue to grow. A common concern is that King's flagship Candy Crush Saga has reached its peak, with growth stagnant, and no other game can take its course. As a result, King's share price fell.

This scenario reminds us of many of the familiar cases of the game circle:

Zynga used a Facebook game to cross-promote the hustle and bustle of this approach, which was suddenly effective, and Zynga has yet to revive on the mobile platform. Supercell to sell the company's shares through the COC boom, but after the COC and the cartoon farm, the company seems unable to launch a game that is as high as fallacy. GungHo by "Zhi Long fan City" earned a pot overflow, but the prospects are not clear; Rovio, too, the Finnish company had no wings to fly when the Angry Birds ' halo faded.

Chasm

For a long time, game media has been an important medium for people to understand how the video game industry works. The media will write a preview of the game and evaluate it, so that in a way, the media can directly affect the reputation of a game. The game media used to be a magazine carrier, but it is now mainly in the form of blogs, player sites and YouTube podcasts. The game media spreads the game-related messages, amplifies the character, thus deriving the cultural and tribal sense.

But the game media is generally lack of love for mobile platforms. Although many mobile games have achieved impressive results, but the game media are still not interested in them, on the other hand, on the mobile game platform, no product can have a loyal fan group of fans. This is about the consumer habits of mobile gamers-the interest comes faster, the number of mobile games is too large, the player chooses a wide range of situations, but, more to the point, mobile platforms such as the APP store and GooglePlay do not give the game manufacturer any opportunity to interact with the player at all.

When a player discovers a game and completes the download, the developer needs to talk to them, and the mobile platform does poorly.

At the moment, the steam platform stands out because it allows players to communicate with game makers. On Steam, each game comes with a "player discussion area" and a separate Web page where developers can post game version logs, artwork, videos, announcements, and more. Players can also post content, such as gameplay guides or their own paintings. Players can reply to the developer's main post, or discuss all the topics of the game on their own ... So in essence, Valve provides Internet forums, Facebook pages, and Atlas mashup services for each game, and integrates them into the steam platform ecosystem. In this way, the player's participation and immersion in the game will be improved, and this will bring steam to a fun game blowout.

Public attention is the only carrier for the success of mobile games, but people are forgetful. Building the player community is key. Companies such as Apple and Amazon have tried to launch services that are bridging different games, such as game Center, but these services do not provide players and developers with the communication they really need. The mobile platform may learn from steam to nurture the player community and support dialogue between players and players and game manufacturers.

One day, the mobile platform may be like today's PC, giving players more space to express, and developers will be able to do more to try, for the game media reporters to provide more interesting stories worth reporting.

How long can you live a mobile game?